None of the leaders of the Iraqi armed factions ever took Falih al-Fayyadh's statements seriously.

The head of the Popular Mobilisation Authority (PMA) paramilitary umbrella organisation is far from known for issuing embarrassing public challenges. He tends to solve problems through the quiet consensus-building of a tribal leader rather than an influential official or commander of the third-largest combat force in Iraq.

So his fiery and confrontational public broadside last month took everyone by surprise.

At a security conference at the PMA's Mosul headquarters on 20 May, Fayyadh declared that the Popular Mobilisation (known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) needed to be rooted in law and subject to the same military regulations as other elements of the security services.

He said the Hashd al-Shaabi is in the process of being separated from the armed factions that make up the backbone of its forces.

Egypt instituted a new policy on Saturday requiring all Sudanese people entering the country to obtain visas beforehand, after detecting "unlawful activities", including the issuance of fraudulent visas, according to Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid.

The decision was a reversal of a longstanding exemption for children, women and elderly men.

More than 200,000 Sudanese nationals have entered Egypt since fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in April, Abu Zeid told Reuters.

According to the UNHCR, that number stood at 83,758.

The ongoing war in Sudan, which erupted on 15 April, has seen tens of thousands of civilians flee to neighbouring countries. Most of them made their way to Egypt, which had been allowing women, children and the elderly to cross, albeit slowly. But many men aged 16-49 were turned back.

Hostility towards the United Nations Sudan envoy Volker Perthes had been building within Sudanese army circles for many months before the country's foreign ministry declared him persona non grata on Thursday night. 

According to Sudanese officials aligned with the army, Perthes "advanced the cause" of rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo during negotiations before and after the agreement in December of a framework deal to transition Sudan back to a civilian-led government.

It was the breakdown of the negotiations that followed the December deal - and particularly the question of how and when the RSF would be incorporated into the army - that helped spark the beginning of Sudan's current war, which began on 15 April when paramilitary forces launched an attack on the army's headquarters and the official residence of its commander, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

On Thursday night, the anger at Perthes escalated, as the Sudanese foreign ministry released a statement saying it had notified the UN's secretary general, Antonio Guterres, that the German had been declared "persona non grata as of today". 

This means the former academic, who has led the UNITAMS mission intended to assist Sudan's transition to civilian government since 2021, has officially been asked to leave the country. Perthes was in Ethiopia when the statement was made and had not been in Sudan for at least a fortnight.